My Shoes : Courage to Tell the Truth

by Dunn-sudds, Adoncia

• ISBN13: 9781456710477
• ISBN10: 1456710478
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-24
• Publisher: Textstream

Summary

An uncle who tried to molest me at the age of eight; Almost raped again at sixteen; accused of child abuse; Two brothers who were murdered; another brother who accidentally killed himself; A mother-in-law who was murdered; two failed marriages; A child who died of a rare disease; Three mental breakdowns; locked up in three different Psych wards; Two no-good baby daddy's; Lived the life of a gang-banger's girlfriend; numerous affairs, one after another. The path I walked had plenty of red lights, curves, and bumps until I found the straight and narrow path.... This novel will bring tears to your eyes; it will make you laugh, cry, and feel my pain and I hope it will persuade someone to make better choices. A true story about my walk in life:

Excerpts

NO GOD! Please don't let him be DEAD!! PLEASE NOT AGAIN. What is taking the damn cab so long to get here? It should have been here. I know my family is wondering where I am. I should have been at the party well over an hour ago. And to think I am bringing the cake for Janet's surprise party. But Janet's party and bringing the cake is the last thing on my mind. God, please, please I beg of you don't let him be dead please. If this damn cab is not here in the next 5 or 10 minutes, I will just have to walk to Cottage Grove to catch one. It is Saturday night; if I walk, it should not be hard to catch a cab on a busy street like Cottage. I have to hurry up and get to the party to let mama and everyone know what happen to Timmy. You can never depend on a cab when you really need one. What the hell; I got to get to that party. All of my family is there, and I can't go to the hospital by myself. I grabbed the biggest butcher knife I had, the cake, my purse and coat, and left walking from 84th and Ingleside to Cottage Grove. It was about four blocks; the longest four blocks of my life. I was crying and praying and walking as fast as I could. I know I must have looked like a mad woman with that butcher knife in my hand, all that crying and what seemed like me talking to myself. "God, I know I don't deserve for you to answer my prayers, but I beg of you, let my brother live. I promise you, God, I will always, always do whatever you say. I have changed and I have been living right, Lord, please hear my prayers, please." "78th and Racine, and please can you go as fast as you can? I need to hurry up and get there, it's an emergency." The cab driver did as I asked; he speeded on my account. After I paid him he told me, "Lady, please be careful with that knife in your pocket. Don't hurt yourself, or anybody else." I thanked him and hurried up and got out of the cab. Now there is no way in heaven I would have stopped and picked up a rider who was carrying a butcher knife and looked deranged. But he must have seen that something was terribly wrong, and he wasn't afraid. I had brought the knife for my protection. Walking at 10:00pm by myself down four blocks was scary, but I knew I had to do what I had to do. I thought about who I should track down first and tell what happened. Not mama, she probably can't handle it; it would be either my sister Pam or Janet. Even though it was Janet's party, I knew she was the one who was more level-headed, and she would know how to tell the others. I was out of breath as if I had ran all the way there. By the time I found Janet, I was hysterical: "Janet, we have to hurry up and get to the University of Chicago hospital. It's Timmy, it's Timmy. We got to hurry up and get there. Find mama and Pam and tell them. I remember Janet shaking me, asking me what the hell was I talking about. "Timmy has been stabbed; we gotta hurry up and get there." I can't remember who drove us or how we got there, but we all hurried up and entered the ER room on 59th and Cottage Grove, asking the receptionist where Timothy Dunn was. She told us to wait one moment while she went to get the doctor. Then she came back and told us to follow her. She put us all in a private room and a minute later the doctor came out and asked us if we were Timmy's family. We told him who was who. "I'm so sorry we did everything we could to revive him.....and he didn't survive! I'm sorry!"